EIA prepares to study impact of US crude exports

EIA Administrator Adam Sieminski said the upcoming review should consider how crude oil exports would affect US refining operations and foreign sales of other petroleum products.

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By HARRY R. WEBER

Bloomberg

The US Energy Information Administration is quite
prepared to review how American exports of crude oil
would affect global markets as domestic production is
expected to reach about 10 million bpd by 2017, agency
Administrator Adam Sieminski said.

Sieminski said a review should consider how crude exports
would affect US refining operations and foreign
sales of other petroleum products.

I think we can address each one of these, he said
Tuesday at the IHS CERAWeek energy conference in Houston.

The goal would be to create building blocks for
policy makers to make sense of the
issues involved, Sieminski said.

As to whether the US should export crude oil, Sieminski said
thats a policy question and not one
he should answer.

Sieminskis comments came in response to a request
yesterday from Senator Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican
and ranking member of the Senate Committee on Energy and
Natural Resources. She said at the conference that the US
should use its vast oil resources as a strategic asset and
ship to other countries, creating revenue and jobs. She added
that she would ask the EIA to review the impact of crude oil
exports.

The surge in US oil production is largely because of technology that has allowed access
to resources in previously hard-to-reach shale plays. A
combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing,
or fracking, has unlocked supplies in shale formations
including the Eagle Ford in Texas and the Bakken in North
Dakota. Burgeoning output has reduced domestic demand for
foreign oil.

Output Estimates

Sieminski said the EIAs latest estimate is that US oil
production will grow to about 10 million bpd by 2017,
exceeding prior outlooks. In December, the agency, the Energy
Departments statistical arm, said domestic output will
grow annually by about 800,000 bpd to 9.5 million in 2016,
nearing the record level of 9.6 million in 1970.

Russia produced 10.55 million bpd in January, while Saudi
Arabian output was 9.7 million, according to the EIA. The US
pumped 8.159 million bpd in the week ended Jan. 10, the most
since July 1988, EIA data show.

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